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> Subject: ARTICLE: Company says it will try to turn human cells into source for stem cells > From: Murray Charters <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 06:33:30 -0700 Published: Thursday, July 12, 2001 Embryo cloning experiments start Company says it will try to turn human cells into source for stem cells Washington Post After more than a year of quiet and careful preparation, scientists at a Massachusetts biotechnology company have started a series of experiments aimed at creating cloned human embryos or embryo-like entities from which embryonic stem cells could be derived. Confirmation of the effort late Wednesday by scientists and ethicists affiliated with the company -- Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester -- constitutes the first open acknowledgment by any research group in this country that it is attempting to create cloned human entities. If the Massachusetts experiment is successful, it would be the first time that scientists have used cloning technology to turn a single human cell into a source of stem cells -- though whether it would actually be an embryo with all the potential to grow into a person remains a matter of scientific and semantic debate. As of Wednesday night, scientists were still conducting the work and would not report whether they had been successful. "Scientific results should be published in scientific journals," said Michael West, the company's president and chief executive, who discussed the effort in response to queries. West said he wanted to open a serious national discussion about the ethics of such work. The company is opposed to the work being used in any way to try to clone a person, he added. On the basis of preparatory work with animal cells, company officials said they believed the cloning effort would lead to the most practical and ethical means of producing highly coveted stem cells, which hold great promise for the treatment of a variety of conditions. The statements from company scientists and ethicists came just one day after researchers in Virginia made the controversial announcement that they had harvested stem cells from embryos they had created solely for research, as opposed to using spare fertility clinic embryos slated for destruction as several ethics groups have recommended. In the Virginia work, the embryos were made not by cloning but by traditional in vitro fertilization. Experts said the Massachusetts effort would put pressure on President Bush, who is considering how to settle a debate over whether federal funds should be used for research on embryonic stem cells. SOURCE: PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press http://www.pioneerplanet.com/news/nat_docs/83903.htm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn